Descent Into Madness, Sorrowful Hope
by Lost And Torn
Summary: The nightmares were always there, always guiding her. Always watching, waiting and plotting. Her nightmares are everlasting, and she is condemed to experience the horror with her two Guardians at her side, sworn to protect her from the Darkness.


Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, nor do I own muffacup AKA Lolly-chan. I DO however own the so-called plot for this little fic of mine, and you all must take the fact that I'm giving this fic to muffacup because she's a dear friend of mine. Hell, she could be my sister with the stuff she and I discuss and whatnot. (Smiles faintly) So, just as I promised you Lolly-chan, here's the fic I said I'd conjure up with my deranged mind and I hope you enjoy it! Start!

"Talking"

_Thinking to oneself_

**Emphasis**

_**Shouting (Screaming for girls XD)**_

_Lolly to Kenshin_

**Kenshin to Lolly**

Lolly to Battosai

_**Battosai to Lolly**_

**Prologue **

_Believers hearken to me!_

_Twenty score men and seven thousand beasts_

_Heed my words and speaketh them to all, that they_

Shall ever be obeyed even under the light of the proud and merciless sun.

_I shall bring down bitter vengeance upon thee and thou shalt suffer_

_My eternal wrath._

_The Crimson Ceremony_

In the center of every human's mind lies a hidden sanctuary, a secret room of worship where the darkest, most heinous thoughts of violence and sheltered innocence dwells, a hidden, broken-down shadow of that person's former self that had been destroyed once their minds is tainted by the first image of self-destruction or self-guilt; the Darkness is forever lingering inside each and every mortal's soul, but they choose to ignore or deny their inner Shadows, believing with such childish impudence that the darkness will simply vanish and they will be able to pick up the broken pieces of their lives.

This is not usually the case… only a few mortals accept and recognize their Darkness, choosing to embrace it with open arms and allow their torn souls to drown in the sea of Shadows rather than choose to fight against it. Why struggle defiantly against an unforeseen force that they themselves created out of years of pain and suffering? They know it is buried deep within them, they know of its existence, yet they would rather soon die than admit they lost the child-like innocence from their youthful years, and for what reason?

That is a question only the select few can answer.

Only the 'Chosen Ones' are aware of the haunting realm that lies beyond the mind of conscious, the unsettling veil of that Alternate Reality whose blood-ridden talons reach out to snatch the very soul from your body and what remained of your sanity from the depths of your mind while you drift off into your deep slumber, obscuring the very sanctuary of the fragile barriers of your mind that you desperately tried to protect, the bewildering haziness that brutally took hold of your sense of what was reality and what was false. And yet, the overwhelming befuddled also made you blissfully aware of the jumbled, broken pieces of disturbing images from so long ago buried deep in your subconscious made those images horrifically vivid while they lasted.

To those who believe to be the 'Chosen Ones' this was a chance to explore another reality they hadn't known to even exist; a chance to redeem themselves for their past sins and to be welcomed back into God's good graces; to piece together a mysterious puzzle, to probe deeper and deeper into its depths, to discover and be witness to a select few scenarios of utter horror, some mundane, some bearing signs of tormenting persecution, others were without the limitations and consequences of what was real. But to the 'Chosen Ones', those whose minds witnessed these scenes of mind-numbing persecution, of these terrifying abominations, this was a curse; night after night of waking up from an endless nightmare, their bodies covered in cold sweat and their hearts pumping furiously as though they had ran from the Beast Himself, but the Twilight Hours offered them little comfort; the Darkness would come for them, searching relentlessly for them and would be drawn to the 'Chosen Ones' Light like a moth drawn to a flame; their white-and-black fantasies came in the form of horrors that left them paralyzed and haunted with fear even after awakening.

Everyone had nightmares, nobody could deny that, but the 'Chosen Ones' nightmares far outnumbered and outclassed the 'Ordinary Dreams' in both detail and clarity. To them, the blood-curdling, heart-wrenching, fear outweighed the terror normal humans would feel; for normal people only dreamt of falling off the edge of a cliff since they feared heights, or dreamt they were drowning due to their fear of water, but what the 'Chosen Ones' secretly feared was so lifelike that they would choose not to dream at all.

Melissa Gonzalez was one such 'Chosen' girl.

Even though she was not a day past the age of six, she knew she was dreaming. Her wide brown eyes scoured the large room she resided in, her curious seas of light-darkish chocolate brown gnawed at every object of interest that caught her eye; the giant stuffed teddy bear her Mommy had bought for her third birthday three years ago, the hand-me-down toys that her mother had owned when she was a child and her own collection of toys that her mother had bought, the wooden horse that rocked back and forth on its mahogany soles, and the small doll that she cradled lovingly to her chest; stroking its curly red-brown hair gently, as though one wrong movement would cause the doll's hair to snap off, its lifeless blue eyes stared back at her and its lips curled up into a sincere smile.

That smile used to bring her comfort whenever she was sad or lonely, but now that she stared back at it in this room that appeared out of nowhere, it looked just plain creepy… not to mention the sudden splash of cherry red on the doll's snow-white dress. Her light tanned fingers gingerly rubbed against the crimson liquid, her lips creased down into a confused frown feeling the sticky unknown substance dribbling down her palm, but she ignored the nauseous sensation that tightened itself around in the pit of her stomach and carefully wiped away the ugly liquid. A bucket of water and a washcloth appeared out of the air next to her and she laughed happily, dunking her beloved doll that she had christened "Ms. Funny Head" into the soapy water and began scrubbing away the filthy red that stained her doll's clothes, pausing to wonder why the items had suddenly been at her side in the first place.

She cleaned the doll more furiously now, grinding her teeth in frustration seeing the red filth wasn't disappearing as easily as she thought it would, the mosaic images of colors only seemed to worsen the more she tried to ignore it, still cleaning her precious doll violently and causing a smudge of her porcelain pale skin to give away to a barely noticeable crack in the doll's left cheek. She ceased in between rinsing the cloth and stared a quick glimpse at the doll's face whose smile had now vanished, replaced by a foreboding demonic grin and revealed two rows of precarious teeth in doing so, the once beautiful glass blue eyes lustred a hellish fiery red while blood-red tears trickled down the porcelain doll's cheeks, now an unsavory shade of black; the doll's entire face began to crack as the startled little girl could only watch on in awe seeing the cracks now radiated a faint orange-red spark beneath the cracks, but she couldn't ignore the silent tears that flowed down her light tanned face.

Melissa clenched her tiny fists tight, gritting her teeth to choke back an ear-piercing scream that rushed in her throat once her tearful, fear-stricken brown eyes took sight of her doll's suddenly ability to move its lips, painted an ugly shade of reddish-brown possibly by the mud and red substance that graced her doll's hair, and she swallowed hard before throwing back her head, screaming as loud as she could.

She wasn't crying and screaming hysterically just because she was scared; she was crying and screaming because she wanted someone to comfort her, so she yelled for the first person's name that popped into her mind.

"**_KENSHIN! KENSHIN! KENSHIN!_**"

Despite the loud racket Melissa made, pounding on the locked doors and bolted windows of the room still crying and shrieking like a child trapped in a small space under the sink, her acute hearing picked up the noise of a faint _click!_ that came from the door furthest away from her doll lying on the floor by her feet and not wanting to reside longer in that disquieting room for a moment longer, her small feet made loud 'TAP'ing noises as she ran across the room, tip-toeing her way around the doll as though it would suddenly spring to life and grab her, sliding the double-sided doors apart and took off down the hallway.

The mosaic that swirled and danced ominously before her in a ghostly manner soon began to warp and distort with every passing moment, a dark red haze veiled her vision, as if she were trying to see properly through a congealed mass of watery blood vessels. Finally, the disturbing images merged into single scenery that seemed hauntingly familiar to Melissa's eyes, and she stopped running, blinking her watery eyes rapidly as her eyes adjusted themselves to her new surroundings and she soon realized where she was now.

The hallway she was walking down was dark, cold and foreboding to her, but she would recognize it anywhere; every single door she passed was locked or barricaded with large wooden boards, and some of the locks were jammed. It had been just three months ago since last she saw this place in reality. The house that she and her parents lived in for the last three years of her childhood had burned down long ago, and it was now a fading memory say for the shreds of images that reminded her of their previous lives, although it had never really entered her mind since the unfortunate incident even though it **did** cause her to reminisce about the past, it always caused her to feel bitter; the memories that were vague, yet clear as crystal on separate occasions if she tried to remember those times hard enough, came with her feeling next to no tender passion.

The ending conclusion of their stay, of their previous home, at the burnt site where the house had once stood gleaming tall and proud on that lonely hill was the primary reason for it, obviously. Regardless of her feelings for their current home, not to mention their first home, Melissa had never felt truly at home in her newfound residence; the house was well over a century old, its floorboards rickety and worn from years of abuse after numerous persons had trudged over its once polished surface; the shadows that lingered on the walls and ceiling in the early evening hours had always made the girl shiver in fear and cling to her mother's clothes protectively, and the darkness seemed to cauterize itself into the walls like human-sized sears; because of its dilapidated state, the entire house creaked with a dark, maleficent, sense, giving it a forewarning of never-ending torment due to it not having recovered from its previous owner's unlucky jurisdiction.

Melissa was positive that had she given it further, deeper, consideration at the moment when her mother had been persuaded to purchase the house, she would never had agreed to settle there in the first place once the previous owner offered to sell her mother the house as a belated "offering of peace" to her. It was enough to say that its presence in her dreams was far from welcoming. The old floorboards wailed in a monotone cacophony of unsettling creak-creaking noises as she now took one cautious step after another, calling out to the person she had been screaming for a while ago in a soft whisper while her brown eyes, shining in unease and nervous dither, darted from left to right and her tiny form shivered the moment an icy, cold-as-winter, feeling gently caressed her fragile self, causing her to tilt ungracefully to the side for a moment before she regained her balance; she was barefoot and the floor was ice-cold, she absentmindly shivered when a similar, icier, draft made her nearly lose her balance for a second time.

Taking a quick glance down at whatever it was she was wearing, a bitter smile slowly graced her angelic features; a knee-length dark blue skirt with a matching blouse and a crimson neck tie fastened neatly into the white folds of her top, and seeing the outfit she wore caused her repulsive grin to widen; she remembered the outfit from her fifth birthday, but the person who bought what Melissa had instantly deemed to be the ugliest clothes she ever laid eyes on thought she looked cute. Her mother apparently had agreed, due to the young mother of twenty years old had 'aw'ed seeing her daughter once she was forced into donning her "birthday suit", bombarding the young girl with embarrassing remarks like 'doesn't she look adorable' and 'it's days like these I'm proud to be her mother'. Melissa, however, didn't take the fact that she could even begin to be considered 'too cute' the moment she gawked in disbelief seeing her reflection in the large mirror her mother kept on the stairs landing, her brown eyes flashing menacingly watching her "mirror-self" duplicate her sour expression; her eyes narrowed and her brows grazed the bridge of her nose, a noise similar to that of a deeply disturbed wolf had came at the back of her throat, lightly pinching the snow-white sleeves of her "birthday present" somewhat repugnantly and gave a low sigh in defeat.

Given the situation, it was possible the six year-old would hate nearly anything her stepf… the person who had bought her the ugly outfit, or show any signs of affection. Despite that three years had passed since Melissa had last dwelled inside her previous residence, the child's undeveloped mind was able to recollect any and almost all memories of her house; where the kitchen was; the sheltered sanctuary that her room had served as since she was four; how many lefts she had to take before taking a winding right into the living room; how cold and spooky the basement of the house had been, its ceiling cracked and stuffed full of cobwebs and ancient spider's webs that still dangled with lifeless spiders, gelatin spiders eggs and glossy sheens that were long-forgotten cocoons from which the infantile spiders had crawled out of.

Unshed tears made her doe-like brown eyes seem misty, even more so when her tears doubled and threatened to spill down her light tan cheeks, but Melissa forced them back as she stood on her tip-toes and grasped the flimsy steel knob between her tiny hands, the cool metal froze the pads of her fingers like a late spring breeze but she ignored it, a low forced noise of childish determination slipping past her lips while the rusty hinges creaked ominously as she struggled to push the door open.

The scenery that should have been her bedroom, its walls painted in the benighted of purple and was once adorned with her assortment of stuffed animals and dolls, was nothing short of a distorted entrance to an unknown and terrifying gateway into another dimension; Melissa remained rooted on the door's threshold, her cold and sweaty palms slowly rising to cover her gaping mouth as her brown eyes doubled in size, taking in the macabre scenery that greeted her and rendered her incapable of speech for a few moments, her accelerated breathing dying in her throat whenever she tried to gasp in even the shortest breath of air.

_What… is going on here?_ Melissa silently asked herself, hoping that the person she had been screaming for a while ago was around this… warped amusement park somewhere. "Kenshin… where are you?" she asked to no one in particular but, taking a sharp glance to the left and to the right, she noticed that she couldn't see any signs of anyone else having been here, if there **were** people here anyway. All she could see were a few poorly constructed park benches, covered in what appeared to be red Jell-O and it splattered on the… metal ground?

Melissa, once her sight was directed at the ground, saw that what was supposed to be concrete was indeed thoroughly comprised of metal and rustic spike-like ends protruded occasionally from the black abyss below the ground, but she was determined not to let the gruesome scenery plague her young mind and swallowed hard, abruptly forcing her eyes away from the benches until they rested on another object of attention: a young man with blood-red hair veiling his eyes and donning a red kimono-like top standing about ten yards at the threshold of an unlocked door, the end of his white kimono billowed behind him as he turned and started to walk away from her.

"Kenshin, wait for me! Don't leave me behind, I don't wanna be alone here!" she shrieked hysterically, her feet pounding on the ground as it began to distort and change before her unseeing eyes -blinded by tears of fright and insecurity like they were- but she couldn't see the ground had now taken on a murky, brown-blackish sheen to it and the door also began to slowly manifest itself into a more unsettling appearance; she tried to ignore the horrific sight of the blood while it trickled down the door frame, the wood disappearing and shifting to a rustic metal gate that bore a broken padlock where the knob had once been.

_Kenshin… don't… don't leave me here all alone. You promised… you promised you'd protect me. …Please… tell me… was your promise a lie…? No! I-I can't think like that. Kenshin wouldn't lie to me._

She murmured his name again as she tore open the door with such strength it nearly broke apart from its ageing hinges, but all she wanted at the moment was to feel safe again and when she cautiously peered around the corner she saw him walking into the thickening, desolate fog and darkness, apparently he was unaware that she had called out to him; Melissa shouted his name again and received the same response; silence. Either that or he was ignoring her, or maybe… _Maybe Kenshin wants to show me something…! _She reasoned with herself and took off running again; making a sharp twist to the right and the closer she got to him, the further he seemed to slip away from her reach, but her persistent chase ended once she tripped over some misplaced object, crying out in shock and pain when her shoulder and temple violently came into contact with something that didn't feel like the floor, a wall or door; whatever it was felt like crashing face-first into a pillowcase stuffed with head-sized boulders, the nauseating stench that clogged her nostrils nearly made her retch up the dinner she had eaten over five hours ago; the smell reeked like rotten meat and broken water pipes leaking a copper-y odor, and it took all of her will-power to force back the sick that rushed in her throat.

Groaning in pain and feeling the faint sensation of her blood dribbling down the side of her face and staining her hair, she slowly raised her head off the metallic ground and coughed harshly, spitting out a few specks of dust that graced the inside of her mouth with a foulness that made her feel just as dirty as the tiny clumps of earthen mire she spat back down to the floor. "Kenshin… why are you leaving me here…?" she asked, her voice sounding ghost-like and drifted into the eerie silence and, seeing him cease suddenly in his tracks, her heart jolted with joy when he slowly turned around, his hand instantly gripping the hilt of his katana.

Confused and mildly distraught, Melissa inclined her head to whatever it was that made Kenshin's features harden and gulped seeing the **thing** lying in a crumpled heap of blood drenched rags concealing a heinous being that was far from human; what could pass for its eyes shot open, revealing twin sets of pitch black eyes outlined by under-sized circles of crimson instantly set its sights on Melissa, who whimpered in fright and tried to retreat backwards. Its jaw snapped open and black saliva dribbled down the corners of its charred, blackened lips, the chest protruded in a sickening manner; its ribcage extended and its stomach bore numerous criss-cross lacerations that bled heavily, the hands were three times the size of hers and they clenched inward, only to snap open just as quickly and she took notice of the reddish tint discoloring its broken, bleeding, skin.

It had no legs from where Melissa could see and it slowly raised itself on its stubby, short upper limbs, letting out a fearsome, animalistic, screeching noise unlike she had heard in her short existence as it began to 'walk' nearer to the clearly scared child who sprung to her feet, only to retreat backwards a few feet away from the creature and crouch down on her heels, cowering in pure terror as her fragile self shivered violently with her hands clasped on her head as though to protect herself.

"You won't bring harm unto the girl, you won't." was all Kenshin said. Everything happened so quick it all seemed to be a blur. The monster poised its talons above the girl's quivering position and brought it down severely, but there was a short interval in time and its hand lay next to its remaining hand, the wrist gushing black life fluid freely from its severed limb which twitched like a chicken after it was decapitated. Though Melissa was unharmed -clearly traumatized but unharmed nonetheless- Kenshin's eyes beheld a startlingly angered gleam within the lavender depths and chose to ignore the monster's blood while it drip-dripped to the ground in numerous, sinful, black rain drops, but he couldn't ignore the fact that it had **dared** to harm his young…

_It's just a dream. I'm dreaming. This'll all end soon. Won't it, Kenshin?_

… **Yes, Melissa. This is all a dream and, like all dreams, it will end soon.**

There was a hint of hesitation in his voice, but she firmly believed in his words and she held onto the hope that this nightmare would end soon, and she felt a bit of newfound security seeing the monster had now begin to walk away from the two of them, but the young man obviously wasn't going to permit it from retreating; Kenshin's breathing grew shallow and yet sounded heavy and, acting on pure instinct alone, dashed insanely towards the creature like he were running on water, and the darkness and uneasy fog dissipated as he did so.

The creature instantly turned around to face its assailant, but with Kenshin's speed it was as though it were trying to move about in damp mud and yet it still poised its remaining hand above its head like it had done to the child, a thick, vine-like, gelatinous chain of bloody entrails shot from the center of its palm coiling around Kenshin's wrist, and his counter-attack came swift and deadly; he growled softly, a characteristic Melissa knew he didn't have, propelling the monster high in the air with a simple flick of his wrist and his lavender eyes now lustred with a demonic amber color, his head abruptly lifted and his neck cracked loudly in doing so, glaring in silent loathing at the creature while it plummeted towards the ground.

"When I said you wouldn't harm her, I meant it. You will not live to cause her more serious harm." she frowned; Kenshin's voice had changed too noticeably. His voice was deep and harsh, slipping past his lips in a hushed whisper, but Melissa heard every word he spoke, and she couldn't suppress the violent spasms she experienced and shivered violently. Kenshin, or whoever he was now, wasted little time in penetrating his katana severely into the creature's face when it tried to catch him off guard once its left hand shot up and attempted to strike across the head; he dodged with little effort, dissipating and appearing behind the creature in an instant, burying his sword deep into the creature's lower back and dragged the Reverse Blade sword up to its head from the inside-out, not stopping until its entire body fell apart neatly in half, the rags now coated to a considerable amount in its blood.

"…" He said nothing and didn't bother to spare the carcass that had once breathed and lived, but didn't seem to mind wiping the blood off on the already blood stained rags and once he was satisfied that all signs of him shedding its life fluids were gone, sheathed the sword back in its original place, inclining his amber eyes down to the quivering girl, her hands still clasped on both sides of her head. "… You can stop cowering in fear. That creature won't threaten you anymore." he stated matter-of-factly. Melissa waited until her fear had ebbed away down to a tiny flicker in her heart before she slowly relinquished the unyielding grip on her hair, tearing her eyes away from the metal floor that felt rough on her feet, that was coated heavily in rust, mold and something else she didn't want to register in her mind, staring back at the man now staring back at her with an unreadable emotion made his eyes practically illuminate the darkness.

"Um… uh… um, t-thank you?" was all she managed to stutter out, still disturbed by the grizzly 'murder' that just took place, though she hadn't dared to sneak a glance she heard everything; the sickening squelching noises its blood made; the ear-splitting scream that died in its throat when it was sliced from its head to the end of its stomach professionally in twine. "… It would be best if we move forward and try to avoid any further confrontation unless it is necessary. No matter what happens don't run off on your own, Melissa. … Am I understood?" he inquired, his amber eyes probed her own eyes for any signs of misunderstanding and finding none, he smirked and beckoned her to follow him with his hand.

_He's kind of scary, I'll give him that… but… he did save me. I'd best go along with him; he's less scary than that monster was._

'Monster' was the only word she could think of that would best describe the hellish abomination, but she had little time to dwell on the matter for soon she was forced to run to catch up with Kenshin since he was older and taller than she was, the moment she caught up to him he had stopped suddenly, glancing down two separate pathways, both ending in darkness. "Kenshin…? Are we going to-"

"No." he responded, thus interrupting her, which her mother had always told her was rude, but he did answer her unfinished question, and she felt a bit glad that he did. "We won't be splitting up… in case you failed to notice **little one**, that monster isn't the only creature lurking around here." he stated harsher than he intended to, but beckoned her again with his hand before walking down the right passage and Melissa, not intending to stick around in this twisted amusement park longer than necessary, struggled to keep up even though he was walking.

The path they walked on was filled with unease and sheltered terror; the child clung to Kenshin's robes in fright at the slightest noise, her brown eyes darting frantically to locate the source of the noise, but the things that greeted her sight heavily distorted with tears only worsened her panicked state of mind as the area before her resembled a Satanic worshipping area; numerous cage-sized boxes were impinged into the ground by means of hook-like sickles and were suspended in mid-air by thick rusted chains that appeared to originate from somewhere, encasing what appeared to be humans wrapping in layers of some kind of white cloth that could pass for ceremonial robes, worn by time and stained in blood, burnt marks, and something else that couldn't be entirely definable; all the bodies gave off the same stench of blood and death, but their skins were cluttered with blisters and the blisters trickled with a yellowish pus, their eyes were missing and it was obvious that each and every one of them had been burned to death.

"Oh… that… that's…" Melissa whispered, burying her face in Kenshin's robes, mildly surprised when he didn't push her away and patted her head reassuringly, a bitter smile etched into his features when he saw that she had eased her head away from inside his robes and firmly covered her mouth and nose with both her hands as she walked beside him, and she dared not to take even one breath lest the unsanitary odor made the nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach worse than it already was; all the stench did was made her eyes water noticeably, and her lungs burned from lack of oxygen.

She knew she couldn't hold her breath forever, but her resilience persisted and she didn't remove her hands away from her face until they were a good distance away from the cells, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief, her muscles that were set at a high rate of alarm slowly began to relax; that was too close for comfort.

_Where on earth are we? Am I still dreaming? Maybe I'm not really dreaming… maybe I fell asleep on the couch again or… maybe it's connected with that town Mommy told me about one time… What was its name…? Silent Hill…? That sounds about right…_

But that couldn't be right; what did that town have to do with this twisted nightmare Kenshin and she found them residing in? Melissa had little time to dwell on this matter for the second time during the course of trying to stay alive long enough to wake up; the sudden, distant noises of their footsteps clanging on metal again snapped her out of her daydream daze. She looked down and saw that the ground had taken yet another turn for the worst, the metallic ground had now merged with other sheets of rusty metal, making it into a makeshift floor; a few of the floor's sections were devoid of walking space, allowing Melissa and Kenshin to peer into the gaping maw of the bottomless abyss lurking below; neither of them could discern nothing say for the endless sea of blackness that greeted them, and she absentmindly shuddered to herself at the thought of what would happen to her if she fell.

Disturbing as this sight was, Melissa soon discovered that the nightmare alone wasn't going to be the only thing that haunted her every waking moment; out the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a flash of cotton candy pink and another flash of crimson red was barely noticeable behind the empty park bench fastened to the ground by fist-sized metal stakes. Drawn by her curiousity, a similar light of emotion shone faintly in her brown eyes the entire five seconds it took the child to cautiously run over to the bench and peer over to the side, a sound between a startled gasp and a soft shriek in terror slipped past her lips, and she couldn't hold back the sickness no longer; she tried to fight the hot bile again, but failed and ended up emptying her stomach's contents on the metallic floor, bits of digested hamburgers and gooey Mountain Dew glued to the edges of the floor, prying open her eyes for a moment before she repeated this ritual three more times.

"…" Kenshin said nothing as he approached the young girl puking her guts out onto the metal ground and peered over the side of the bench, his amber eyes narrowing at the sight of the blood oozing from the mouth of the costume's mask which depicted a large rabbit's head with giant, lifeless black eyes and a equally large grin plastered across its face, its right ear was torn from the rest of the mascot outfit and the left ear was soaked in blood; the pink that Melissa had spotted earlier was the color of the rabbit's fur, and the crimson took the shape of the mascot's red overalls fastened with large white buttons, and she remembered this mascot; it was Robbie the Rabbit, he was easily recognizable due to his tall, obese, fluffy self.

Melissa was now wiping away any evidence of her previous sickness off her mouth and groaned in discontent while pressing a small hand to her head and, much to the child's shock and horror, Kenshin prodded the rabbit's head with his foot; mild surprise flickered in his eyes once the head rolled to the side, clearly showing **why **there was blood splattered virtually all over the mascot uniform; Melissa nearly retched up for a fourth time as a result of this. Whoever it was that had once been inside this costume hadn't met their untimely end swiftly or pleasantly.

From the looks of how the headless corpse appeared to be, with the neck jutting out from within the costume, the person hadn't been deceased for very long or the stench of decay would've been more powerful; leaning away from the headless mascot, Kenshin side glanced at Melissa whose spasms had left her weak and dizzy, her heart fluttered as the world spun madly around her and he prevented her from striking the metal floor, wrapping his arms around her back in a weak embrace.

He hoped that this nightmare would end soon… for her sake, and for her sanity. Knowing full well of the dangers leaving a six year-old child dizzy and weak wouldn't do her any good had there been any monsters nearby; cradling her limp body in his arms, he carried her bridle-style and made a solemn oath: the both of them would always protect her.

Strange how Fate had its mysterious habit of shredding what little hope he had.

Barely five seconds had passed after Kenshin crossed the threshold leading into the rides section of the amusement park when he heard it – a disturbing and familiar cacophony of noise that told him getting the child to safety wouldn't be so easy; not that he hadn't expected doing so would be a simple task, not without a bit of danger along the way to a temporary safe house. The sound of heavy footsteps rang in his ears and since he was carrying her, he couldn't risk her life, but he easily evaded the abrupt blade that pierced through the darkness, spinning in circular motions just where his head had been; he realized, with flames of burning vengeance, that if he hadn't eluded the monster's attack in the nick of time, he would have lost his head.

This new creature was just as much of a threat as the last monster he'd slain, any chances of the girl's earlier assumptions that this was all but a dream shattered when its massive arm broke the guardrail beside him, just barely grazing his shoulder. Melissa's limp body already began to writhe about insanely and she quickly eased herself from his arms, leaping back in fright when the creature started to swing its arms like twin menacing flails and she screamed in terror, scurrying to put a reasonable distance between herself and this monster.

**_Do you honestly believe running away will make this problem disappear?_**

So intent was Melissa on retreating, she failed to take notice of yet another demonic creature lurking behind her; Kenshin also failed to take notice of this, but his amber eyes narrowed in seeing the gargantuan shadow looming over the child's retreating figure and the creature that he assumed to be dead suddenly lurched its arm towards the girl at blinding speed; before Kenshin could do anything to stop it, it was too late.

Melissa cried out in pain when the foot-long blade mercilessly scraped her back, ripping her shirt apart like it was nothing but water, and she whimpered in sheer agony as she dropped to her knees while the pain began to intensify with ten-fold the torment the moment it was placed on her fragile body; she supposed this was what being stabbed in the back with a machete felt like. Compelled by instinct alone, she tentatively reached back and gently touched the wound, trying to assess the damage, but her brown eyes doubled in size and a sickening, churning, sensation took hold in the pit of her stomach when she caught sight of the crimson gore tainting her hand from the pads of her fingertips to nearly gracing her wrist when she brought her blood-streaked hand in front of her face.

The injury was no mere cut or scrape that would go away in a few moments; this was serious, possibly life-threatening. Looming high over the quivering child, Melissa's demonic assailant moved at a dreadfully slow pace, fully intent on inflicting more anguish and cause more blood to spill from its young victim's body; she didn't wait for it to attack her as the first monster had, and Kenshin wasted no time to inflict more serious harm than it had done to her; using the previous monster's carcass for leverage, Kenshin leapt high in the air, and all Melissa saw was the Reverse Blade cutting through the darkness; a second later and she heard a horrendous fleshy sound splattering the metal floor, the monster's head and body, literally sliced to ribbons, hit the ground.

Melissa, however, was more than twenty yards away from Kenshin, having stumbled to her feet with all the strong-will she possessed and took off running like the Devil was pursuing her, crying out from the blistering pain coursing up and down her back while she ran; she didn't allow the pain to cease her from her intentions and doubled her speed, she didn't want to find herself being shredded to ribbons at the hands of the new creature that persisted in its mad attempts to ensure the child of her demise.

Its body mainly comprised of a giant spider's body, its back glistening an amber-yellow in the darkness, four sets of night black eyes glared down at the girl as she ran, the blades positioned awkwardly in what could pass for limbs drilling the air while its body spun upside down like a whirling tornado, letting out a high-pitched, inhuman shrieking noise and an ear-splitting ringing melody originated from the creature. Melissa ran faster now, panting like a dog being overworked to the point of collapse as she crossed into another segment of the riding district of the amusement park; the creature recurred to stalk her, its blades still whirling, but it wasn't able to pass the partition in this area; the oversized limbs still spun and the blades were far from capable of achieving the simplest of tasks: opening a gate was one of them.

For a moment, she permitted her body to have the rest it craved, and then two sounds that chilled the blood in her veins and cut the eerie silence made her stop dead in her tracks, her ears on full alert and strained the surrounding area so as to locate what had made the sounds before the creatures locked on her position. One noise was the unmistakable, cacophony, howling of some canine animal, and Melissa's body instinctively tensed, cold shivers danced up and down her spine; unlike other children, she had never feared large dogs, but she wasn't fully equipped to defend herself from a dog that was possibly the incarnation of Hell at the moment.

But it was the other noise that truly terrified her – a horrendous noise that sounded like something heavy and blunt scraping across rustic metal that could only register in her panic-stricken mind as a resonating siren; a never-ending police or ambulance siren that constantly rang in her deafening eardrums. Melissa didn't want to stick around and find out what new unsettling surprises this madhouse of an amusement park had to offer her, breaking off into a life-or-death sprint, desperate to find an escape route of what was surely nothing short of a death trap for her and Kenshin.

Risking taking a split-second glance behind her while she dashed at an insane pace over the metal floor, she caught a vague sight of a pack of savage dogs howling and barking, some stalking about with their forked tongues dragging across the ground and making bizarre growling noises that weren't common for canines; the darkness obscured their bodies from view for the most part, but she did take notice their skins were charred and peeling off the ribs in haphazard places, their teeth rotten with blood and dirt, jutting out a few inches below their jaws. Her chest tightened at the thought of what those dogs would do to her if they were given the opportunity, but the pain constricting her chest and striking her heart with fear and pain eventually worsened when the stress of not stopping for a few moments of rest and the blood-curdling terror of what horrible Fate that would befall her if she dared to stop for a breather began to take its toll on her.

She silently urged herself to keep moving forward and tried not to think about what awaited her beyond the unlocked gate which, in turn, lead to a flight of metallic stairs she was nearing, and for that slight reassurance that she would finally be allowed to rest she pushed her body to its limits even though she was near to passing out because of the choking ache in her chest; she couldn't stop; that wasn't an option for her at this time in her short existence; she would perish in the most unimaginable of ways if she did.

Soon she had finally reached her destination: the flight of stairs that led up to the roller coaster ride some fifteen feet up from her position on the ground. Her legs burned from running across the mosaic landscape, her lungs were set ablaze due to her panicked disposition and from her running for so long like she had been; the stairs appeared treacherous and disheartening blanketed in darkness, but she coerced her to start the exhausting ascend up the stairs. The first few steps on the first staircase didn't probe much of a problem; it wasn't until she was in range of the second set of stairs that she finally noticed something was dreadfully amiss.

Blinded by her fear and panicked desperation, Melissa failed to glance down at the steps as she ran, cool sweat glistened on the child's lightly tanned features while she carelessly stumbled her way up the winding staircase, gripping the guardrail when she nearly lost her balance and almost fell backwards, nearly sending her tumbling down the metal steps; her timid grasp on the guardrail suddenly tightened the moment the most atrocious pain imaginable suddenly struck the soles of her bare feet, and a high-pitched shriek in the deepest depths of misery and pain cut through the silence; tears stung the back of her eyes and brimmed to the surface, and she slowly inclined her obscured vision downward, nearly fainting at the sight that greeted her.

Glistening shards of the hospital-variety needles, all broken down into little sharp and jagged pieces, cut mercilessly into her skin, small footprints of luminescent crimson dotted the staircase as she tried to ignore the pain as best she could and pushed herself forward and took two hesitant steps, but the stairs grew moist and sickeningly warm as the amount of blood gushing out the tiny slithers of cuts on her feet had now doubled; Melissa would have stumbled clumsily back and tumbled down the steps had she not been gripping a hold of the guardrail. Her sight grew blurry and disfigured as the hopeless despair grew; everything had happened so quickly she didn't know what to make of her current dilemma, but the staircase was now completely littered with slivers of glass, and there were still over fifteen steps left to climb.

She cried out in mindless helplessness; how did she ever manage to find herself trapped in this twisted amusement park like a rat in a maze; how was she ever going to escape this horrific dream? She could barely walk, let alone stand, as it was, and for a brief moment she considered just staying there in the hopes that this nightmare would end soon. This was before she heard that hauntingly familiar grating noise resembling that of a power drill; one of the spider-like creatures hadn't let up their pursuit and it was hurriedly closing the distance in between them. Melissa made a quick decision. Realizing what she intended on doing would hurt immensely, she had no other choice; she hoisted herself up and forced her body to take another agonizing step forward.

As if driven by her instinct the shards of metal and glass deeply penetrated her feet, causing more small injuries on the vulnerably exposed soles of her skin, with every step the child took the pain only seemed to worsen, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the agony she experienced, but it did her little good; her feet felt like they were being torn to shreds at an unbearably slow pace. Never in her short life had she witnessed first-hand sheer agony like she currently experienced, but she tried to block out the pain even harder now, bracing herself for the next ten steps she had to take in order to reach the stairs landing, knowing full well what would become of her if she didn't get away.

She didn't stop walking, even after reaching the landing -which to her gratitude- wasn't riddled with debris, but despite her being deeply thankful about this, sharp jolts of pain pierced her spine in a never-ending rhythm as the tiny shards of glass and bits of metal already imbedded in her feet dug deeper into her skin with every step she took; tiny trickles of blood stained the edges of her tan skin as a result of this. Once she finally reached the stairs landing, Melissa was exhausted; the burning adrenalin that had coursed through her veins the entire while it took for her to get at the top of the steps was now a faint spark slowly ebbing away to nothing, and with a final burst of effort she pushed herself past the last step; she felt like she was dying.

It didn't take her very long to succumb to the aches, the pain stinging from the wounds on her feet, and the sudden tiredness that gripped her body; her legs buckled under her and she finally permitted the mind-numbing agony to overwhelm her. If a swarm of monster-esque demons had been trailing their way up the staircase to where she was, hunched over on her knees and breathing heavily before she hit the ground, they would have found to be a pitiful excuse for a meal; she was physically and emotionally drained.

Time didn't seem to exist for the whole time she laid there, blood oozing freely from her wounded, sore and blistering feet, breathing in heavily and letting out a sigh of misery every so often, but she did find comfort in one small fact that benefited her; the cool metal floor felt refreshing against her sweat-drenched face. Eventually, little by little, her heart began to slow its frantic rhythm and her lungs soon relaxed as well, the white-hot determination that had kept her running this entire time was now non-existent; much to her shock, the pain from the agonizing wounds on her back and feet was now beginning to fade away as well. Melissa slowly eased herself from her position on the ground, her legs shaking violently while she did so, her head pounding mercilessly as the world spun insanely around her and she groaned, still gripping the guardrail so she wouldn't lose her balance.

Still, despite her body ached all over and the onslaught of a migraine was lightly pounding away at her head, she braced herself and took a hesitant step forward, her eyes peeling the thickening sea of blackness for any signs of Kenshin, but a faint sinking feeling had taken a hold of her heart; a soft whimper of uncertainty slipped past her lips as she wondered what became of her Guardian, her sworn Protector._ No… I won't think like that… he's alright. He's just not here right now… I'm sure he's safe. _However, her mind believed otherwise, and the dreadful images of him lying dead or dying somewhere nearby haunted the child after choking back the frightened sobs and winced with every step she took forward, the bloody trail had lessened now and she was thankful that it had; she was already weak from running away from those monsters from earlier, and she wasn't prepared to pass out on the metal floor.

Melissa continued to proceed forward, though she was still sore a decent amount of her strength and resolve had returned; by some divine miracle courtesy of God, the sharp pain that had stung her back and legs had also vanished. She was deeply relieved that nothing but dead silence plagued this place high above the park grounds, her brown eyes scoured the areas dimly illuminated by the flickering lights hoisted above her head and suspending in mid-air by means of a thick wire connecting to a large circuit board, other than that there wasn't much of importance; a rickety wooden track began to her left, no doubt belonging the park's trademark roller coaster known as The Zipper.

The second thing of interest was a grey door, from the view outside it seemed to be the control room for the ride and the large unidentifiable machine was humming in the corner; chances were it was probably the control mechanism for the roller coaster, Melissa tried to open it, but it was firmly locked, that or the lock was jammed, so there were no chances of her getting inside; on the other hand, she wouldn't be able to find a way to operate the complicated machinery inside the room even if she did have a key.

With no other intended destination, Melissa eventually found herself walking the roller coaster tracks, her feet made soft taping sounds whenever they struck the cold metal intertwined with the wooden part of the man-made trail; she was extremely careful to make sure her footing remained on the track. It seemed the further she walked the dimmer the lights from the overhead florescent lighting grew until there was nothing but pitch darkness, and she couldn't suppress the cold chills seeing the tracks appeared to be levitating above the ground situated some twenty stories below where she was, high in the air and walking across an invisible bridge, not a roller coaster ride with its track held aloft by support beams; bits of the wooden tracks were missing in haphazard places, and the poorly constructed path wasn't by any means wide, but it did support her weight surprisingly; the track was about nine to twelve inches wide, and just as minuscule in length and the rickety track creaked ominously every so often.

Melissa's tiny form quivered violently while she fought to keep the butterflies fluttering about in her stomach at bay; she was never a big fan of heights, plus she thought she was at least two hundred feet in the air. It wasn't until she was halfway across the track when she got the startlingly assumption that something was amiss; for a moment, she was almost positive there was a distinct humming noise vibrating through the dense fog, soon the tracks beneath her feet quaked violently in a matter of seconds, as if an earthquake was on the verge of occurring. Paralyzed with fear, Melissa stumbled to her feet, her legs shaking while she did so, gripping onto the metal railings to steady herself and not to lose her balance; she risked a glance backward and to her terror, she noticed the track was collapsing swiftly, piece by piece.

She tried to run, but the damage was being dealt to the roller coaster track faster than she was able to run on such an unstable path, a horrified high-pitched scream resonated sharply when the board -cracked to fragments- she just stepped on suddenly gave way, leaving her clinging desperately for her life on a broken metal support beam. Precariously immune to the girl's dilemma, the track didn't cease crumbling away to nothing; the entire architecture was swallowed by the gaping maw of darkness lying directly beneath her feet dangling in the air, wooden boards each cracked and apparently useless now, disappeared into the nothingness like a toppling mass of dominos.

Melissa shut her eyes tight, tears dribbled down her face as it dawned on her frantic mind that she wouldn't live to see another day, but she felt someone was looming over her on the other side, she tilted her head sideways and saw twin seas of lavender shining with a deep sadness staring back at her. "**_Kenshin, help me! I-I don't wanna die here!_**" she screamed, her tears still trickled down her light tan features. "Everything will be all right, Melissa. Don't worry, I'll protect you." he replied softly, reaching for her and grasping a hold of her by the shoulders, easing her away from hanging between life-or-death, but he didn't attempt to flee from the track, still breaking and falling into darkness a few feet away.

"It will be alright, Melissa. Don't hold your tears back, let it all out." Kenshin conveyed in a hushed whisper, the light of sadness grew seeing the child had now started crying hysterically, burying her face into his chest while she grew wrecked with melancholic sobs, hiccoughing softly as he stroked her face gently, almost as if he were trying to comfort her. The devastation took just seconds to reach them, and she glanced up at the track breaking away, her eyes riddled with blood-shot veins and unshed tears. When the section of the track they stood on disintegrated beneath their feet, the terrified child knew their time was up.

Melissa Gonzalez screamed in terror while she and Kenshin plummeted into the abyss.

First chapter is done! Thank God! But… yeah, I don't know how long this fic's gonna be, so don't go flipping madly in your reviews for me to update just yet. Maria-chan, do you wish for me to do a similar fic for you before HTH? Chelsea, as for you, don't worry. Yours is already started. Lolly, I hope you enjoyed this. I'll make sure nothing of what happened in this chapter happens in the second chapter, I promise.


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